


Magical Wonders

by Okumen



Category: Baccano!, とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga), 文豪とアルケミスト | Bungou to Alchemist, 赤髪の白雪姫 | Akagami no Shirayukihime
Genre: Akagami no Shirayukihime Valentines 2019, Crossover, F/M, Gift Exchange, World Hopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 07:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17782775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: To think that such a small patch of ice can cause such a big confusion.





	Magical Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo the title might not make much sense, I settled on it by listening to music while being hungry and Sarek’s _Magiska sekunder_ (Magical seconds) came up and, that is _that_ result.
> 
> This is for dan-de-leon over at tumblr, for the 2019 AnS valentines exchange; happy valentines to you!
> 
> The prompt was “ObiYuki waking up in another anime world”. It took the longest of time to decide what other world to use. I went through your tumblr pretty far back but the only anime I saw mentioned was Boruto and Attack on Titan and I’m not involved with those canons (I did read Naruto for a little while way back when it was first published in Swedish Jump but, I didn’t get very far) so I had to improvize. At least one of these other canons have an anime? But I took some liberties. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with any of the canons, they’re a bit obscure, but I hope you like it even if you’re unfamiliar with the canons and characters.
> 
> By the by, Tanizaki is voiced by the same person as Obi is. Just...leaving that note here.

A treacherous patch of ice hidden underneath freshly fallen snow caught her by surprise, and Shirayuki let out a startled squeak as she fell. She let out a relieved sigh and pressed a hand against her wildly beating heart, until she felt it calm down. “Thanks, Obi.” She smiled a shaky smile at Obi, his raised eyebrow and crooked smile that came in response to her expression. “No problem, Mistress.” He hauled her back up to fully place her feet on the snowy ground, on a spot clear of ice, judging by how her feet found steady purchase to stand on. She clutched her parcel of herbs from the hot house closer, realized that she was doing so, and relaxed her grip on the parcel so she wouldn’t crush the plants in her grip.

Winter was quickly approaching, with a haste as if it could not wait to see the midwinter sun and only darkness, and the cold nipped their noses, turning them red alongside their cheeks. Shirayuki had not escaped Yuzuri’s ear muffs, the woman having passed her by just as she and Suzu were leaving to pick up fresh herbs for medicines that they needed to make. Suzu had watched from beside her, paused for a moments thought, and had noticed before Shirayuki that Obi was approaching. Waving the knight over over, Suzu had enlisted Obi to take over his duty, to go and gather the herbs together with Shirayuki instead. _Unlike you, I am not a brave man,_ Suzu had explained, pointing out the snow on Obi’s shoulders and hat. Shirayuki had noticed the look that Suzu gave her after, a self-satisfied half-smirk that made her want to box him in the arm.

The hot house had been a pleasant respite from the weather, which had grown severer as they worked, her altering tasks between gathering herbs and pointing out to Obi which ones she needed him to pick and how to pick them, him following her instructions with the quick way that he picked up on all her instructions ever since the first time that she helped her and Ryuu at the palace. He was getting quite adept at handling the plants that they used, both in caring for them and harvesting them.

It was less pleasant to step back outside, particularly because the snowfall had become heavier, the flakes larger and wetter and colder, the wind cutting sharply into their skin. Shirayuki shuddered— and slipped, tipping into Obi once more. She pulled in a sharp breath and she sneezed, snow having made way into her nose together with the air. Obi laughed and she was glad that the cold had already dyed her cheeks as apple-red as her hair when he brushed snow off of the tip of her cold nose. She couldn’t really feel him do it, only see it, because the little appendage was too cold to have retained much sensation, but she felt warm at the casual gesture and the good-natured laugh. She blinked up at him and noticed how sparkles glistened in his dark eyelashes, the light from the lanterns and blossoms around them catching in the tiny shards of ice stuck in the laughing moons of darkness brushed against his tan skin.

Shirayuki felt even warmer when she realized that her mind had spiraled into poetics, and she pushed her way past him, because surely the blush on her cheeks had intensified with the realization; it certainly felt that way.

Another patch of hidden ice materialized underneath her feet, and another startled yelp slipped past her lips. Obi’s hands caught her shoulders, and she heard the sound of the parcels he had been carrying land in the snow with a soft _thump_. Her heart beat frantically against her ribcage, and over the sound of his question, a loud sound echoed.

There was the sound of a loud whistle ringing through the air, something like the sound of a shrieking kettle, although a gigantic kettle, with the sound rolling against buildings.

Shirayuki and Obi both stood frozen on the slippery path, both equally wide-eyed and stunned, like deer being thrown off-guard by the sudden light of a lantern catching in its eyes. People passed them by, muttering to themselves and passing weird looks across them— As if they were the strange ones there, not the people plodding through the soggy, gray snow.

“Mistress,” Obi spoke slowly, voice silent and a near-whisper, on edge and watchful, reminding her of when he was ready to spring into battle at a moments notice. Her hand reaching to clasp his tensed at his guarded tone, her fingers twitching a little tighter around his. Her gaze darted across the area, an unfamiliar street filled with unfamiliar people dressed in unfamiliar fashions. “Yes?”

“Were there hallucinogenic drugs in the air?” His question pulled Shirayuki out of her state of confusion, making her fall into the calm caused by categorizing drugs and medicines that she knew of that might cause hallucinations or auditory delusions. One by one, she scratched them off the list of what might cause the current sight— “Are you hearing the pot?” she asked him, and he confirmed that yes, he could hear a very large pot from somewhere nearby. She asked him about the people; he described them in detail to her. They were indeed seeing and hearing the same things. She could scratch off the last few items off the list. “No,” she said, finally. “Nothing like this.” She straightened up, and she was glad she wore her sturdy boots because the filthy snow was wet and would have gone right through any thinner leather, cold and damp and all that it was. The air was heavy by smoke and contamination; it couldn’t be healthy.

“Let’s find out where we are,” she decided, deciding to let him do the asking. Despite the way that they stood out in this peculiar environment of narrow streets and tall stone buildings, Obi had a remarkable ability of fitting in and learning things even from perfect strangers. She watched him at work, performing what could be considered a craft, what with how good he was at people, and she held their parcels in hand as she leaned against an uneven wall and he slipped up the street one moment, down it the next. When he returned to her side, he had somehow acquired two hot buns from somewhere. They were delicious. As she bit into one and he tore into the other, he told her, “New York, I’m told. Some country called America. Have you ever heard of it, Mistress?” She shook her head, and he nodded, and agreed around his bread. “Me neither. And these people act as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.” Shirayuki hummed, gaze wandering between the people passing them by. “We must be very far from Clarines.” So it seemed, because Obi explained how apparently, not even one person had ever even heard of Clarines, or Tanbarun, or any other of the countries on their slice of the world. Obi seemed intrigued. Not that Shirayuki wasn’t; “Imagine, the medicines that a strange place might have to offer that we don’t yet know about.” Obi grinned over her way. “You should do some research, Mistress. I’ll figure out how to get back home in the meantime.” Shirayuki blinked at him and shook her head. “No, I’ll help you.” Obi bumped his arm against hers, and she pursed her lips at him as she accidentally bit her finger along with the last of her bun, but he only grinned at her. “It’s fine, Mistress. New types of medicines would be good for our country, so it’s a good thing to split up the tasks.” She frowned up at him. “I suppose you’re right.” His reasoning _was_ sound, it would be good for Clarines if they could bring some new, useful knowledge back with them.

“Look, Miria, isn’t that amazing? It’s Hollywood Stars!”

“Super amazing, Isaac! It’s Davies! It’s Swanson!”

A set of voices attracted their attention down the street, to see what amazing thing the people shouting were seeing. It turned out that the only people even looking remotely amazed by anything had their attention turned toward Obi and Shirayuki.

“Those are both women, Miria. You gotta name a man too.”

“Oh! You’re right, Isaac! Then, then, then- It’s Bonnie and Clyde!”

“Only Bonnie and Clyde would dress so daringly in the middle of the city!”

“That’s right, only they would do that!”

Obi’s eyes were even larger than Shirayuki’s were, as the two people, a tall man and a blonde woman, sped over to them; the man was dressed in a garishly colored suit covered in fringes, from his heels to his hat, and the woman was equally outlandishly dressed in a colorful, fringe-covered dress and high boots. Even among all the strangely dressed people in the strange place that Shirayuki and Obi had found themselves in, this pair were exceptionally strangely dressed. If anyone were dressed _daringly_ , it was these two total strangers.

“Those outfits are amazing, you two, are you actors coming from rehearsal? Something European? Russian, maybe?”

“Is it a Tchaikovsky? T. S. Eliot? We’ll come watch it!”

“If we’re in town, Miria, we’re leaving New York soon right?”

“That’s right Isaac! After we say bye to Ennis and the rest!”

“So we’ll come watch you next time we come back!”

The man turned a fist, thumb sticking up toward the sky, toward them. The woman mimicked the action with just as much gusto.

Obi was as startled as Shirayuki, it seemed, perhaps even more. He was amicable and easily adapted to new situations, but this was a new experience for him as well, surely. “Um, no— Mister, Miss, we’re, not actors...” The strangers were, in truth, the ones looking like actors in some outlandish play. “Yes we’re,” Shirayuki decided to take a gamble, though she wasn’t certain if Obi would entirely approve. “We’re strangers here, and have gotten lost. To be honest,” she continued, though she felt Obi’s arm pressed against hers tense. “We don’t even know how we ended up in this town.” She knew why he had gotten even more on his guard; outing them as complete strangers to the town was a risky move that left them vulnerable, and easy targets for thieves and other ruffians. But if they were to be faced with such shady characters, Shirayuki knew that she could rely on Obi. And rather than shady, this pair really seemed just eccentric beyond imagination, to her. “You don’t happen to have heard of Clarines before, Miss Miria, Mister Isaac?”

She only expected a negative answer to her question, perhaps with as much flair as their previously uttered sentences, but to her surprise, they seemed to have their attention pulled from the question to—

The man gasped, the woman echoing him with a hand over her mouth. They turned to each other, utterly baffled expressions on their faces, and words that baffled both Shirayuki and Obi.

“Hey Miria, she knows our names.”

“I know Isaac, it’s a shock!”

“She must be that, that thing, a psychic!”

“A _ma_ zing, Isaac! I’ve never met a psychic person before!”

“Miss Psychic, what else can you tell?”

“What can you see, Miss Psychic?”

Shirayuki forced her mouth shut after it had fallen slightly open in surprise, and then she smiled awkwardly at the pair. “No I’m not psychic... You used each other’s names so that’s why...” The two gasped once more, no less dramatically than before. They seemed a little disappointed, so she added, “I’m sorry...”

“No! It’s fine!”

“It’s fine!”

The man suddenly clasped one of Obi’s hands in both of his. The woman clasped one of Shirayuki’s hands in both of hers.

“Mister!”

“Miss!”

Shirayuki felt Obi tense even more though he was barely touching her.

“We will help you find your way!”

“We will help you!”

Obi found his words to an extent, and sounded embarrassed when he murmured, “Thank you.” The question remained if it was a wise decision to have told these two strangers about their predicament, even if they had not told them of its entirety, but they did seem like decent people.

Though they seemed to have some questionable associates, judging by what Obi had previously learned about something called _the mafia_. Apparently they were organized criminal gangs of some sort, and the bar hidden away behind the honey shop _The Alveare_ sold illegal alcohol at nights as a result of something called _the Prohibition_ , and the speakeasy was apparently run by a gang called the Martillo Family, which apparently wasn’t a part of the mafia but another organization called the Camorra. Obi probably understood everything that they learned about it and more, while Shirayuki did not. It seemed pretty complicated.

Obi fell into easy conversation with the hoodlums at the speakeasy, familiarizing himself with the linguistics and expressions, fitting in with ease once he had calmed down. Shirayuki watched him, unable to keep the fondness from her expression. This was his element, she knew, far more than knighthood was.

“Mistress,” he called after a while, and Shirayuki’s attention focused on his words and not just his more and more relaxed figure. “This Miss knows about medicine—” He was gesturing toward a young woman with short red-brown hair, when Isaac and Miria’s attention was caught by something that Obi had said.

“Mistress, Miria!”

“That’s what he said, Isaac!”

“Amazing! It’s like out of a romantic play.”

“Tut-tut-tut, Isaac, this is what you call eloping.”

“A young lady and her manservant, running away together!”

Isaac’s hands clasped with Miria’s, Miria’s hands clasped with Isaac’s, and they both got something faraway in their expressions, even as their, apparently normal, theatrics, made their minds and mouths run away a mile ahead of reality.

“How romantic!”

The pair continued to ramble, but Shirayuki was more focused on Obi’s bashful expression, and in reigning in her own intense blush. The woman Obi had been intending to introduced came over to Shirayuki, passing the eccentric pair still talking between themselves.

“Some knowledge regarding medicine was imparted upon me in the past,” the woman confirmed Obi’s words. She offered a hand to Shirayuki. “I’m Ennis.” Shirayuki curtsied reflexively, but halfway through followed the other woman’s initiative and took her hand in hers. The woman’s handhold was solid and firm, but not hard. “I’m Shirayuki.”

She passed a look over to Obi, who had been caught by Miria and Isaac and their words. “Way to go!” she heard Isaac say. “Way to go!” she heard Miria echo. Saving him was a hopeless endeavour, she judged. “They’ll get distracted at some point,” Ennis reassured her, before leading her into a conversation about medicine and healing techniques.

Eventually, Obi crumbled at the table where the two women were holding their discussion, seemingly completely out of steam. There was rambunctious laughter in the speakeasy, and he revived soon after being offered some alcohol which, apparently, was called moonshine due to its currently illegal status.

Before she realized it, the day had turned to night, and Ennis had offered to let them stay the night at the place she lived at. “Firo won’t mind much. Czes... He’ll be alright.”

The smell of flowers caught them off guard, and Shirayuki felt Obi tense behind her. It wasn’t that a few flowers were enough to cause the reaction, but the smell was so intense and unexpected among the dreary buildings of New York, that neither of them could help their surprise.

They were suddenly surrounded by warmth and light, and she realized that the door they had stepped through, expecting it to lead out of the honey shop, instead had taken them into a field of flowers. Ennis was nowhere in sight, either. She felt Obi shift, noticed him watchfully take in their surroundings and her hand caught his in an attempt to put him at ease, though she knew as much as he did about what was going on— And she didn’t want to lose track of him.

There was a forest behind them, taller than the buildings in the Martello Family’s area of operation in Little Italy, darkness under the thickness of the branches. And ahead of them was a field of flowers of all the colors on the known spectrum, sparkling in the sunlight washing down from the sky.

“No, come back~~!”

The shout attracted Shirayuki’s attention, turning her gaze the same way Obi had tilted his head toward. It came from above, and Shirayuki’s eyes widened when she saw the form of what appeared to be a person in the vast blue sky.

Before she knew it, Shirayuki was on the ground with a child in top of her. Shirayuki pushed herself up to sitting position, which wasn’t difficult because the child was light. She appeared to be perhaps around Ryuu’s age, and she was dressed in a soft blue cloak. Framed by long green hair was large, apologetic and somewhat frantic eyes; the girl scurried out of Shirayuki’s lap and up on her feet.. “I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry, I didn’t mean to crash I’m sorry! I was just trying to catch up with my cap, I’m sorry!”

Shirayuki smiled at the girl, and she got up on her feet as well. It was a lot warmer on this field of flowers than Lyrias and Manhattan had been, and she was already starting to sweat under her coat. But thanks to the coat it had not hurt at all to fall into the field of flowers. For the time being, she wouldn’t worry about the flying in the sky thing. “It’s alright, I’m not upset and I’m not hurt. But I wouldn’t be upset even if I were. You’re not injured from your fall?”

“Oh! No, I’m not, I’m fine!” The girl shook her head and her hands as well. It seemed like she had a lot of energy. Either way she really did seem to be fine and Shirayuki was relieved. “We can help you look for your cap, if you’d like.” Speaking of _we_ , where was Obi?

Her question was answered before she could even look around to try to find him, with the sound of his voice coming from past her left shoulder. “Is this it, Little Miss?” The hat he was holding was a pointy cone shaped one, the same color as the girl’s cloak. A smile of happy relief spread on the girl’s face and she clutched the cap to her chest. “Yes, thank you Mister! I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost my cap forever! I don’t want to make Professor Qifrey sad. Thank you really really much!”

“You’re welcome, Little Miss. I’m glad you didn’t lose something so important.”

“Yes!” The girl beamed up at them. “Can I do something in return as thanks? I’d like to! There’s not much I can do but I can do some things. Oh! I’m Coco, I’m a witch but I’m still an apprentice so I can’t really do magic for you.”

Shirayuki blinked slowly, surprised. She glanced over at Obi and saw his face show as much surprise as hers probably showed. “Well, I was going to ask if you could tell us where we are because we’re a little lost, but it seems we’re actually a _lot_ lost.” The girl, Coco, blinked, a mirror of their confusion, and she tipped her head to the side. “But I haven’t said where you are yet, how can you be more lost?”

“That’s- well...” Shirayuki and Obi exchanged a quick glance; was it fine to tell her? The flowers and the forest of the country was less confusing than the high-rise buildings of the city, but the witch bit couldn’t be brushed off to make them think they were just somewhere else in Clarines, on the continent, or some other continent- even if it would be weird to end up on another continent because she slipped on some ice. What seemed to be going on now was also weird though, it was almost as if they were ending up in completely different worlds. “Witches are, have never existed back where we’re from...” Except in imagination and fear mongering; even herbology had been seen as witchcraft, once upon a time. Things were different now but Shirayuki knew some of the stories. Coco seemed baffled by her words. “But there’s magic everywhere, how can there not be witches?”

“There’s no magic at all back home,” Obi said. Shirayuki wasn’t sure if Coco noticed his brief pause, but Shirayuki noticed it. “So witches wouldn’t have anything to work with there.” _Home._ She was glad that he was able to refer to someplace as home.

Coco seemed no less baffled. Instead, she looked even more baffled, as if she couldn’t believe that a place without magic could ever exist. Then she seemed to come to a decision and, after placing her pointy hat on her head, she took hold of Shirayuki’s hand with one of hers, and with the other she took hold of Obi’s hand. “Magic is _amazing!_ Come look!” She dragged them off across the field of flowers, determination clear on her face and in her eyes.

And truly, magic was something else. The water sparkled with it, the land floated, stairs spiraled without support beams, carriages flew through the air- all sorts of things happened because of magic, because magic permeated the world so thoroughly that it was impossible to imagine it without it. Coco told them of magic that she couldn’t show them at the moment, of cobblestone that lit up when you stepped on them, of water pots that never ran out of water. She didn’t tell them how it worked, but just seeing it and hearing about the things they couldn’t see was amazing in Shirayuki’s mind. There was even ways to heal people with magic! That was something that would be interesting to learn more about.

“Coco!” They heard a shout as dusk was creeping closer. Obi, apparently, had adapted quickly to the news that people could fly in this world and picked out the girl with curly black hair and a cloak and cap identical to Coco’s faster than Shirayuki did; the girl was descending from the sky, with much more ease than Coco had. “Agete!”

The newly arrived girl, Agete, took Coco by the wrist and pulled her a distance away, while she shot suspicious looks their way. She seemed to speak in heated tones, though she was quiet enough for at least Shirayuki to not hear. The slight tilt of Obi’s head told her that he might be hearing what was said to a degree at least. “Apparently she needs to be more wary about strangers,” he informed Shirayuki. “Aah.. Maybe a little bit.” Obi grinned at her, a twinkle in his eyes. “That’s right, Mistress is _very_ suspicious.” Shirayuki elbowed him in the side to cover her embarrassment. For some reason, ever since that one particular outburst by Isaac and Miria, she had felt a bit awkward about him calling her Mistress, even though he had done so for several years now.

“I know!” Shirayuki looked back over toward the girls at Coco’s cheerful outburst. She sounded like she had had an idea which she considered a great one. “Professor Qifrey might know!” Ignoring Agete’s grumbles, Coco rushed back over to Shirayuki and Obi, and took them once more by one hand each. “Let’s go ask the professors if they can help you!” _Professors? Not Professor?_

Shirayuki caught Obi’s shrug, and she picked her coat up off the ground together with her parcel. “If you think that is a good idea then sure,” Obi said, acknowledging Shirayuki’s wordless decision.

As they were led by Coco toward what was this Professor Qifrey’s atelier and home, Agete continuously eyed them with great suspicion. Shirayuki assumed that Coco had told her their story, and that she didn’t believe it as easily as Coco had. “What’s that?” Agete asked, indicating the parcels. “It’s herbs,” Shirayuki said; she started listing all the different herbs that they had picked out of the hot house in Lyrias. Obi barely held back an amused sound from the back of his throat and Shirayuki heard him whisper loudly to the girls, “She’s a pharmacist, so she rambles about it sometimes.” His voice was really full of amusement. Shirayuki puffed up her cheeks and nudged him in the side with an elbow, and he chuckled at her reaction.

Agete had a large worm on her shoulder, a large, fluffy white one, with large eyes that peered up at them. Obi seemed particularly fascinated by the creature, which apparently was called a brushbug. It was quickly friendly with him, no suspicion detectable, and it rubbed its fuzzy head against Obi’s cheek. He seemed to be in a very good mood as a result.

Eventually they reached the top of a hill. There was a small house there- or two, depending on how you looked at it; they were connected by a walkway more than a person’s height above ground. A quiet girl with long blue hair was outside, and she watched them, didn’t protest at the hug she received from Coco, accompanied by the squeal of “Riche!” which Shirayuki assumed was the girl’s name.

Coco pulled open the front door and called loudly for her Professor Qifrey, she turned back to them, and she pulled them toward the door and the kitchen that could be glimpsed past its frame. From the smell of it, something was cooking in there, and Shirayuki wondered if maybe they could have some, at least just a little, to eat. They had not eaten all day, she realized. Not since they were at the Alveare.

And then she realized that the kitchen was nowhere in sight, nor was the girl, any of the girls.

The little house had turned into bookshelves, rows upon rows of bookshelves. “Again?” Obi muttered, more mildly annoyed and curious than annoyed and unsettled, at that point. Shirayuki’s gaze wandered over to him for a moment; it was not really the books he was interested in, but what was making them end up in such wildly different places for the third time now. Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but wonder if there were any books on medicine that might teach her something that she had been unable to already learn from the Chief Pharmacist, Lyrias, or Ennis. Her eyes searched the titles, and she wanted to take some of them out to have a look, because they seemed promising.

“Oh?” they heard a voice say, and even Obi startled at the sound of it. His head snapped upward faster than hers, cat-like eyes turning slim as they searched the shadows above the shelves. She had not heard anyone approach, and from his reaction, she assumed that he had not heard whomever was speaking until their voice was heard either, judging by his reaction. “How unusual for us to get visitors,” the voice continued, and she determined that she couldn’t see any person among the shadows. She felt Obi’s tenseness change in character, from warily startled to watchfully confused. “I’m sorry that we’re appearing unannounced,” she said apologetically, gaze still searching and finding nothing but more shadows. No— She thought she saw something small move among the shadows. The voice speaking to them had not sounded like that of a child. “We seem to have a talent for getting lost recently,” she explained. She made to continue, but she stopped talking, lips parted for words that didn’t come and eyes widening as she realized why Obi was so surprised. A cat? A cat in a shirt collar. It couldn’t be— Was it magical? But the brushbug and the other animals back with Coco had not spoken human words. And yet, the cat opened its mouth and uttered its words as if it was only natural for it to speak the language of humans instead of that of cats.

“It’s alright. I say that it is unusual for us to get visitors, but it is not unheard of. This is an alchemic library, after all. Incidents happen. Perhaps you would be willing to explain what has brought you here to us? Some of them would gladly provide tea or coffee, I’m sure.” The cat sounded almost as if it thought that whomever _them_ were found it a bit too easy to offer strangers a cup of beverage.If cats could arch their eyebrows, this one probably would have, at the noise Shirayuki’s stomach made. It certainly _felt_ as if it was looking at her with arched eyebrows. The judgement of a cat was a particular brand of judgement, much alike the judgement of Obi. “The dining hall it is, then,” it said. It walked off along the bookshelves, and after an exchange of glances, Shirayuki and Obi followed the cat through the library.

There were people in it, people giving them curious looks as if strangers was a peculiar sight in there. Even though it was a library? How odd. She could feel how Obi tensed up the more of those looks that they got. Shirayuki slipped her hand into his to give him some reassurance.

The dining hall held the same atmosphere as the library. It was warm looking with all the wood, and the light that filtered in through the windows. “Today is thursday so it’s cutlet bowl on the menu,” the cat informed them. “There sould be some left since not everyone are here are the moment. Have a seat, and I’ll go inform the kitchen and the librarian of your presence.” The cat disappeared before they had the time to say anything.

Obi chose their seats in silence. Shirayuki could only assume that he chose a place that was as advantageous and easily defensible and easy to flee from as possible; he would probably not be as tense as he was if there had been more people in the room, occupied with their food and not taking much or any notice of them. The attention was unsettling. He surely missed meal time in Lyrias, and likely would have preferred even going back to the Alveare and the friendly gang of criminals found there over this.

A few minutes after the cat had left a young man with a curious but mild expression on his face, framed by softly orange hair, emerged from what could only be the kitchen, holding a tray. He smiled at them, a pleasant and welcoming smile, despite them being total strangers barging in unannounced and without permission. “I know you were told we had made cutlet bowl but we were out. Luckily we were doing some croquettes for the group away on a book delve, as they should return soon. I hope you don’t mind having some of those instead.”

“We don’t mind at all, we’re just grateful for anything at all. Thank you very much.” While Shirayuki exchanged words with the man, who introduced himself as Takamura Koutarou, she felt Obi slowly relax a little. She thought that Takamura seemed sincere, and judging by Obi’s reaction, the man seemed to be honest and open without any hidden malice. Plus, Obi liked food and enjoyed trying new things. Over fifty years old though? He did not seem to be that old, but he also didn’t seem to be lying. “It’s a little complicated,” he told them, apparently not keen on explaining the complicated matter.

Another man joined Takamura. He was carrying a round tray, with a pot balanced on it. Tea, it would turn out. And Tanizaki, it would turn out the man was called. He did not get to talk with them for very long before Takamura steered him back to the kitchen. It was no surprise that might happen, when one of the first things that he said was a question; “Would you mind stepping on me, young lady?” Takamura seemed to be both used to it and unapproving. “Not now, Tanizaki,” he told the man off, “Must you?” Obi had tensed again, and Shirayuki didn’t look on his face — she was too much at a loss for anything to say in response to the question and the tone it had been asked in. The man Tanizaki had a very special way of talking, sounding fairly...sexual. And there was something else that she couldn’t put her finger on... — and she did not see the way Tanizaki paused, looking at Obi with curiosity and amusement and a chill running down his spine at the predatory look in Obi’s eyes. Then he turned his gaze back to Takamura. “It is not every day we get a visit from a lady. There is only Miss Librarian here, usually, and she stepped on my foot last time I propositioned her.”

“Perhaps you ought to see that as a sign to stop propositioning the ladies.”

“Why I never. A postumusly devoted only-once married man such as yourself would not understand a several-times divorcee such as I, Takamura.” A complicated look passed across Takamura’s face for a brief few moments. Then the smile returned to his face. “ _I_ will step on your foot at this rate.”

Tanizaki looked down at his feet, more or less bare, and at the heels of Takamura’s boots, and pursed his lips in thought at the threat. “You say such terrible things with such a sweet face.” He gave Takamura’s cheek a pat. Then he smiled at Shirayuki and, by extension, at Obi, before he sauntered off to the kitchen again, without tray and pot in hand. Takamura gave an awkward smile. “I’m sorry, Miss, about him. Tanizaki is very...” At an apparent lack of words to describe exactly what Tanizaki was, Takamura paused for a moment. “...Tanizaki is Tanizaki, and at this point he is impossibly incorrigible.”

Shirayuki opened her mouth to tell him that it was alright, but she was interrupted by the sounds coming from the doorway leading out into the corridor. Shirayuki had not noticed the group of curious-looking men of various ages at the doorway, though she had no doubts that Obi had noticed them. She had personally been too distracted by Tanizaki’s words. She assumed. She could be terribly inattentive at times, even without such unsubtle innuendos aimed at her, though usually it was distraction by academia.

A woman pushed past the group of men and entered the dining hall, heading straight for them. She held the cat in her arms, so presumably, this was the person that the talking animal had gone to fetch.

“Tanizaki-san is?” she turned her question to Takamura. “Banished to the kitchen for the time being,” he informed her. She nodded, once. “Have him stay there so he doesn’t cause any unnecessary trouble would you?” Takamura smiled. “I will do that. I’ll be back with a cup for you.” He retreated to the kitchen, briefly returned with a cup at which the woman offered her thanks, and he retreated once more. The woman poured tea into her cup, took a sip, and then eyed the two of them. She completely ignored the gaggle of men at the door. The cat was settled in her lap, and she petted it as she spoke. “I hear that you are lost.”

“Y-yes...”

“How lost, exactly?” The woman asked. There was something about her that made it seem as if she didn’t mean through what window they entered through to get inside the library. Shirayuki took a breath, deciding to follow her instincts and tell the woman about what was going on. Because it felt like the correct decision. “We were in Lyrias, up north in Clarines, picking herbs in the hot house. On our way back I, I slipped on some ice and we ended up in a place called Manhattan in a city called New York, in some country called America, places we had never heard of before then. When we stepped through a door we ended up on a meadow at the edge of a forest. We were never told what country we were in but it was summer there, unlike in Lyrias and New York, and then when we were invited into a house we were, suddenly we were in this library instead. It’s all like completely different worlds. We have no idea what is going on and it’s a little unsettling..” She trailed off, and for a moment she imagined the woman laughing and telling her that she was trying to trick her, but the woman did no such thing. Instead, she sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. “This thing again. Were there any books lying around nearby?”

Shirayuki blinked, startled, but apparently the woman was talking to the cat. “Didn’t look,” the cat responded. It stretched, tail curling past the edge of the table. “They interrupted my nap, I was distracted by that.” Beside her, Shirayuki felt Obi shift. “There was one,” he said. “But the pages were blank.” The woman nodded, hummed, and turned her attention to the men at the door. “Kunikida-san, please take Mushanokouji-san and Edogawa-san and see if you can find it.”

“But I’m busy,” a man with pink hair and a notebook and pen in hand protested. He had been writing things in the notebook since Shirayuki had noticed the group.

“It should be in the flora section,” the woman said, ignoring the protest. Huffing, the man with the pink hair, likely the man called Kunikida, turned and pulled a man with a tall white hat and a long cape, and a man with red hair of a much softer tone than Shirayuki’s, along away from the door. The woman turned back to the two of them once she had seen the trio leave, and she poured herself another cup of tea. “Let me ask, Miss, Mister, do you dabble in alchemy?” Confused, Shirayuki shook her head. “No... I’m a pharmacist, Obi is, he’s a knight. I’ve heard about alchemy but isn’t that about turning things into gold?”

The woman let an amused breath into her tea before she put her cup back down. “No, Miss Pharmacist. Though it is perhaps best known as that. I thought the same, initially. It is most easily described as a form of science that has a level of magic incorporated in it, and it can do a lot of different things. Such as turn paper and ink into people, by calling forth souls of the dead.” She gestured toward the men at the door. A few of them looked uncomfortable. Shirayuki felt that the woman had to be joking, but by the look on some of the men’s faces and the tone of her voice, Shirayuki had to assume that maybe the woman was being completely serious. “And it can bring people through from other worlds. We had a visit a while back from two alchemist brothers, Edward and Alphonse, who came through a book, as you seem to have done. Although I can’t explain how you would have traveled to these other two worlds- though New York and Manhattan exists in this one as well, it’s on a completely different continent from Japan- we ought to be able to help you out. You would have to help us in return though, of course.”

Shirayuki was about to agree, because of course they would need to help them in return, but Obi spoke before she could. “Help you with what, exactly?”

“To clear the book that you came out of.”

She explained that the reason why these men were transmigrated — summoned from the dead — was because there were entities trying to erase important literature from the world. The men were the authors of that litterature, dead since long ago and called forth through their connection to their works. “I would say that they were summoned through their love for their works, but for some of them, that is not fully accurate.” They dove into books during what they called book delves, to fight monsters that represented various obstacles an author could face, such as procrastination and corrupt ink. That was what they would need to help them with; to delve into the specific book that Obi had seen, and to clear it of any monsters.

“I don’t-” Shirayuki looked down at her hands, then looked back up at the woman. “I don’t know how to fight. Obi does, but I don’t.”

“You said you’re a pharmacist, yes?” Shirayuki nodded. “Then you will be introduced to Mori-sensei. He’s our in-house doctor though he’s an author as well, he’s in the infirmary. You are finished with your meals? Good, then I will guide you there, Shirayuki-san. Tokuda-san? I’ll rely on your experience as team leader; show Obi-san how to delve, and bring Niimi-san and Yoshikawa-san along. Do you have any weapon, Obi-san?”

Although not keen on telling anyone exactly how many weapons that he kept hidden away on his person, Obi nodded in affirmation. “I do, Miss.”

“Good. Then please rely on us. We’ll be relying on you in return, and see if we can’t help you out of this mess you’re in.”

The woman, apparently the librarian of the library, an alchemist in charge of transmigrating the authors simply referred to as Miss Librarian, showed Shirayuki to the infirmary. It was a nice little room with curtained-off beds in them. A tall man with brown, slicked-back hair in a white coat was introduced as Mori Ougai, though when he worked as a doctor he preferred to be called by his real name Rintarou, Ougai being a pen name, or else he would become foul-mooded; he was a former army doctor now in charge of the health of authors and personnel at the National Library.

Shirayuki was very excited to learn about medicine from him, even as she was a little worried about Obi. Not that Obi couldn’t take care of himself, but she would always be worried about him as she would be worried about Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki, and he _was_ trying out that book delve thing for the first time.

Authors bled ink, it turned out. She learned that when the group that had been away — Koizumi Yakumo, Kikuchi Kan, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, and Natsume Souseki — returned mildly banged up. Their wounds healed with rest—— and by drinking ink. It was quite marvelous. It wouldn’t help the people of Clarines, but Rintarou knew what he was doing in terms of medicine and did not mind giving her lessons while Obi and the others were away. She was grateful both because it taught her a whole lot of new things, and because it took her mind off of her worry.

After monkfish hotpot shared with a group of authors and Obi, she and Obi met up after she had taken a bath and he had had another check-up after a fight. With there only being one woman normally living at the library and Shirayuki bringing the total up to two, there was only one bath with times split up separately for the ladies. Miss Librarian usually put up a sign on the door to let the authors know that it was occupied. Shirayuki was sure that Obi didn’t have to guard the door and he probably knew that as well, the authors were good people even when some of them were weird, but it seemed to make him feel at ease to wait outside the room until she was done. “Just pretend that it’s like normal, when someone has to wait outside for Master to finish,” he told her.

They shared a room as they stayed in the library, though what other library had sleeping accomodations? And they were headed back, when they took a side-trip to the library to pick up a few books Mori had suggested she have a look at. She picked them out of the shelves, and they headed back to their room.

Obi pulled the sliding door to the side for her———And they were greeted by faces full of snow and whipping wind.

Shirayuki brushed hair out of her eyes to little success; it was quickly covering her sight once more as soon as she released it.

The scent of old books and ink was whisked out of their noses and the calming colors of the library was nowhere to be seen. The glittering light from the flowers that they had cultivated trailed a path through the darkness among the golden glow of lanterns.

Shirayuki looked over her shoulder, and noticed to her surprise that behind them was not the corridor in the library that they had just been in, but the empty hallway of a watchtower.

“We’re in Lyrias again,” Obi noted beside her, bafflement in his voice and, she saw, on his face. Shirayuki clutched her parcel close to her chest— she looked down and realized that though she had put it aside in the infirmary, she had it in her grasp. They were both once more dressed for the harsh cold of Lyrias’ hastily approaching winter, too, even though their coats were meant to be hanging on one of the coat hangers. “We... didn’t dream that... Right, Mistress?”

As it had every time since Miria and Isaac blabbered on about romantic eloping couples, and they both had cheered Shirayuki and Obi on and told them that they were “rooting for them”, Shirayuki’s face flushed when the affectionate honorific that was so normal on his lips. “No I, I’m not sure... A-anyway Obi, let’s, let’s get these herbs back to Suzu and Ryuu.”

Obi, probably as confused about what they had just been through as she was, followed her. She could feel his gaze on her neck, and though she was hesitant and her skin burned, she slowed her step and to his confused expression, slipped her hand into his without another word as she continued toward the stairs down from the wall. Obi, startled by the action it seemed, was quiet beside her, but didn’t pull his hand from hers.


End file.
